Brook's book is centered around Mr. March, the father in "Little Women" who is notably absent from that novel as he is away engaged in something or other during the Civil War. Since Alcott modeled the characters in "Little Women" after herself and her sisters, Brooks utilized Alcott's father as the foundation for her creation of Mr. March. Alcott's father was a radical progressive and an abolitionist, with the latter being a major theme in this book.

"March" is a beautifully penned book, and March the man is an extraordinary human. He is kind, intelligent, and hardworking. March has a strong moral core and leaves his family to preach God's word during the Civil War. I found March to be a wonderful character and was truly enjoying the story. However, unfortunately, the story took a wrong turn for me when it switched from Mr. March's perspective to Mrs. March's perspective. I don't want to disclose the reason due to spoilers, but suffice it to say that Mrs. March's view of her husband didn't align with the character that had been established for most of the book, making her perspective seem completely senseless in my opinion. Coupled with Mr. March's transformation from arguably a hero to a martyr or someone suffering from self-pity, well, I was left wondering if I was still reading the same book about two-thirds of the way through.

Even so, I would still recommend this book because of the excellent writing and the creativity Brooks demonstrated with the March character she had crafted. She also included some great sections about Emerson and Thoreau, some of which were taken verbatim from Alcott's father's journals. There's also a great bit about John Harper in the book. Thus, from a historical fiction standpoint, Brooks did an outstanding job, making this book overall a very enjoyable read.

You read a book and its complexities will devour you and leave you unable to describe the feeling.

There is not much I can say here. It has complex characters, a complex story, and a complex timeframe, all embodied within graceful prose. There is enough narrative distance to create objectivity. It is gut-wrenching and soul-searching.

Take March, the main character, an abolitionist. He leaves his family to join the American Civil War as a chaplain. But March is just a speck in the book, as there is an intricate plot that surrounds him. Through March, the brutal side of war is shown. However, there is also love and love letters that add to the beauty of the plot. The horrors of slavery are mentioned, with horrific scenes that make my insides crawl. This book, which uses fact as a scaffold, is another stamp on history for a race that has endured unspeakable crimes.

All this is told with the charm of historical language and modeled after the classic, Little Women. Since the classic was about how a year lived at the "edge of war" changed the characters of those little women, Brooks wanted to give the father a voice he never had. How was he changed? What did he see? How did his view of the human race get altered? The result is stunning.

Daylight. Still, at last. Underneath me, leaves. Above, a blur of branches. My eyes focused on a single leaf, turned before its time. Scarlet and gold. The color throbbed against a sky of brilliant blue. All that beauty. That immensity. And it will exist, even when I am not here to look at it. Marmee will see it, still. And my little women. That, I suppose, is the meaning of grace. Grace.

Why have I given March by Geraldine Brooks four stars?

First and foremost, the author excels in描绘 the Civil War and the country's mood during that time. Brooks writes about the abolitionist movement, the Underground Railroad, the contrasting views of Northerners and Southerners, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, the transcendentalists, the role of women in society, and overall, both the new societal trends of the time and the established views of the past that still prevailed. There are numerous details, all supported by thorough research. While interesting, the historical details are mostly common knowledge and may not necessarily draw the reader into the story. However, the quantity of details is impressive and gives the reader a good sense of the time period, serving as a great backdrop for the story.

Geraldine Brooks' intention was to take Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and fill in what was happening to Marmee's husband, who had gone off to war as a chaplain. While Alcott's book focuses on Marmee and her four girls, we see here what was going on in her husband's life. Letters were exchanged, but did his letters truly convey what he was experiencing in the South? In this book, we get to find out. Brooks works within the framework of the events in Alcott's book, not changing the daughters' personality types or the plot.

Marmee is not depicted as I had imagined her. Surprisingly, this was brought up in the book's epilogue. Brooks was given Little Women to read by her mother but was told that the overly good mother character should be taken with a grain of salt! This explains why in Brooks' book, Marmee is not quite the angel portrayed in Alcott's. She is more opinionated, a more modern character than the Marmee in Alcott's book. Yet I like this. We are able to get inside her head, have the opportunity to consider her thoughts and emotions. This gives the reader something to think about. I admire Brooks' ability to weave the same story with the events unchanged while adding another dimension. Alcott's book looks at the daughters' lives, with a lot of emphasis on whom they will each marry, which I found rather dull. Here, the focus is instead on the brutality of the war, how it has changed the husband and wife and, consequently, their relationship.

Nowadays, we often discuss how participating in a war changes a person forever. I really like that Brooks points out how not only survival guilt and what one has witnessed but also a lack of courage and being ashamed of one's own behavior can scar those who take part in a war. A soldier may expect too much of himself. How does one set the boundaries for what is reasonable?

The story gets better as you progress, providing more and more to think about. The character portrayals become deeper.

Richard Easton narrates the audiobook. His narration is clear and easy to follow. You can hear every word. You don't focus on him; you listen to the story, which is what I prefer. At the end of the tale, we are no longer in Robert's head but in Marmee's instead. Easton does not change his intonation. This doesn't bother me, but it may bother others. I have given the narration four stars.

Brooks' book has given me more to think about than Alcott's. The research is impressive, and I think it is not an easy task to take someone else's story and make it into something new. I also appreciate the informative afterword at the end of the book.

*****************************

*People of the Book 5 stars

*March 4 stars

*The Secret Chord 3 stars

* 3 stars

*Year of Wonders 1 star

*Caleb's Crossing TBR

*Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 3 stars

*Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott 3 stars

*Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs 4 stars

Poignant story - carefully crafted;

Two strong women - broken man;

Puritan morals - a Dr Zhivago style love triangle;

Ideals of a holy cause - realities of war;

Glorious march to war - hell on earth;

Happy home life of Little Women - the untold part revealed;

A 20th century narrative - with 19th century dialog;

Revolution - unintended consequences;

Survivor's guilt - self forgiveness.

The above are topics upon which I could elaborate while describing my emotional responses to this story. The complex mix of emotion and issues explored by this historical fiction raises it to the ranks of literary fiction. This book won the 2006 Pulitzer prize for fiction, and this is one instance where I agree with the judges.

The main character in this book is the father of the March family made famous by Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, Little Women. This book tells of his experiences serving as a Union Army chaplain during the Civil War. In Alcott's book, there is much concern expressed for his welfare and word is received of his being hospitalized and gravely ill. But his only appearance at home in the Little Women story is at the end when he returns home on Christmas day. Because of this connection to a widely read classic novel, most readers begin this novel with extensive knowledge about this family and home life. But the primary focus in this book is on his experiences during the separation from his family.

The book begins with Mr. March's early years, his marriage and the rise of his financial fortune and the losing of it in vain efforts at supporting abolitionist, John Brown. Mr. March is described as being passionate, sensitive, idealistic, and willing to accept strong willed and intelligent women as intellectual equals. These are all admirable traits. Granted, he's not perfect in all things, but even his mistakes show him to be all too human.

When Mr. March entered the Army as chaplain during the Civil War, he was a principled believer in the Union cause. His experiences during the war had a devastating impact on his self-confidence and his assurance that war can be a positive force for good. By the end of this story, he is racked with guilt for the failure of his efforts to do the good that was intended. Similar symptoms today would probably be diagnosed as PTSD.

Many readers may conclude that Mr. March was a weak person to be so affected by his war experiences. I choose to think of him as a noble character. War is such insane activity that any participant who survives psychologically untouched must be a psychopath.

The author provides an epilog that explains the research behind the book. I appreciate authors that provide this insight. However, I still have some questions unanswered by the author (which I won't go into here).

The following is taken from PageADay's Book Lover's Calendar for January 27, 2008:

PRIZE WINNER

In Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Mr. March was the absent father who was based in part on Bronson Alcott, Louisa May’s father. In Geraldine Brooks’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, we learn that March has become a Union chaplain and then a teacher of “contraband” slaves. His letters home are cheerful, but the reader knows that he is hiding the truth from the family. He experiences firsthand the suffering of the war and feels the futility of his efforts to ameliorate it. Mr. March has his own inner conflicts as well, and by the end of the novel he is a changed man. “It feels honorable, elegant and true—an adult coda to the plangent idealism of Little Women,” said John Freeman in The Wall Street Journal.

\\n  MARCH\\n, by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, 2006)

The best form of historical fiction is truly remarkable. It involves deep research that is seamlessly integrated into the narrative, so much so that it doesn't seem forced or overly academic. The characters are based on real people, yet they feel completely authentic for the time period in which the story is set. The dialogue and descriptions are so vivid that they transport you right into the heart of the action, making you feel as if you are a part of it.

It offers an original perspective on familiar events from the past, breathing new life into them and presenting them in a way that you may have never considered before. It is an utterly absorbing tale that can hold your attention from start to finish, captivating you with its engaging plot and well-developed characters.

Moreover, the issues it raises are not confined to the past but also pertain to our own era, making it relevant and thought-provoking. Geraldine Brooks is without a doubt in the same league as Valerie Martin and Hilary Mantel, authors who have inspired me to strive for greater heights and set the bar higher for myself. And it's amazing to think that I've only just discovered her! I can't wait to explore more of her works and be further inspired by her talent and creativity.

I simply ask you to see that there is only one thing to do when we fall, and that is to get up, and go on with the life that is set in front of us, and try to do the good of which our hands are capable for the people who come in our way. That, at least, has been my path.

Throughout most of this book, I didn't anticipate this powerful and emotional sentiment. The sections about Mr. March initially had me rating it at a solid four stars. It was truly good, yet not completely outstanding. However, to my astonishment, we were then presented with a section from Marmee's perspective. It wasn't until I delved into parts of her thoughts that I realized the book wasn't solely about Mr. March. Instead, it was about war, family, and the meaning of being a good person in a dreadful time. This ultimately became an amazing book, and after finishing it, I understand why it won the Pulitzer Prize. But it did take me a significant portion of the book to reach that realization.

The quote above was not uttered by Mr. March. Otherwise, I don't really wish to say much more because it is truly the way the story unfolds that makes it so remarkable.

I'm truly fascinated by the retellings of old classics.

It's amazing to me that every beloved classic appears to have an enduring life. They take on a new afterlife and continue to inspire people, even when their characters may have flaws or seem outdated by today's standards. People constantly wonder what happened to the characters after the book ended and often find themselves penning their own answers.

This is precisely why I read this particular work. I was overjoyed to discover its existence. Even after writing my thesis on Jane Austen fanfiction, it never crossed my mind that there would be Little Women fanfiction.

However, the most remarkable aspect of this book is simply its presence. Its content, on the other hand, isn't all that thrilling. Brooks weaves a rather dull narrative about Mr. Marsh's experiences in the Civil War and his difficulties in reconciling his faith with mankind's cruelty. There's also a strange romance in the story. While it's not hard to expand Mr. Marsh's character, who was just a shadow in the original book, I found the portrayal of dear Marmee almost unacceptable.

The little women themselves hardly make an appearance in this retelling, which might actually be a good thing. Otherwise, it probably would have been a disaster.

**"MARCH": A Captivating Tale of War and Redemption**

MARCH is the story of a man who was once wealthy and held strong abolitionist convictions. He made the difficult decision to leave his wife and children behind in order to minister to the union troops. His hope was to free and educate the slaves. Set during the Civil War, this story is filled with the abominable cruelties of slavery. These horrors test a man's faith in humanity and unmask the shortcomings that haunt him during a life-threatening illness.

As the father in Alcott's Little Women, this 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner vividly depicts Mr. March's tumultuous life during wartime. He has only bits of connection to his family, which adds to the complexity and poignancy of the story. Despite the challenges and hardships, MARCH is a great read. It offers a unique perspective on the Civil War and the people who lived through it. The story is both heart-wrenching and inspiring, making it a must-read for anyone interested in history or literature.

No Little Women

I had a great admiration for Geraldine Brooks' earlier novel, \\n  Year of Wonders\\n, despite its somewhat contrived ending. However, I was hesitant to start this one as I knew the title character, March, was based on the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, a book I had never read. But my concerns were unfounded. Brooks' novel stands firmly on its own and provides any necessary backstory. I have always been deterred by what seemed like an air of Victorian sentimentalism around the Alcott books. So, when March began with a letter home from the battlefield in that very vein, I almost gave up. But again, I needn't have worried. The overall tone of March is far from sentimental. One of its main themes is about what cannot be said in a letter home and the unbearable pressures and unintended dishonesties that arise from the well-intentioned desire not to cause pain to loved ones. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy may be safe with their mother Marmee in their simple home in Concord, but their father's experiences further south are anything but a children's story.

Brooks writes that her novels are about "faith and catastrophe," which was true of Year of Wonders, but it is even more relevant here. While ostensibly filling in the story of the fictional March father from Little Women, who is absent with the Union army in the Civil War, Brooks goes far beyond a literary what-if. Expanding on the quasi-autobiographical nature of Alcott's book, she draws on the real-life character of the novelist's father, Bronson Alcott, a transcendentalist philosopher, educator, and utopian idealist, and a friend of Emerson and Thoreau. But since this is fiction, the character can be made younger and more emotionally vulnerable, thrust into the fighting, and, even more painfully for him, brought into contact with the "liberated" slaves on former plantations. The result is to expose the moral ambiguities of the war and slavery in a way that approaches the power of Edward Jones' The Known World and test the emotional honesty and moral courage of this noble but imperfect man of peace almost to the breaking point.

This is a rich and complex book that is highly recommended. For further discussion, see my review of E. L. Doctorow's The March.

Well, I completed the audiobook last night. I must admit that I truly relished listening to the narrator's voice. It was indeed very pleasant and warm. However, when it comes to the book itself,

I think Brooks' writing style is remarkable, and I really took pleasure in that aspect. The beginning of the book was relatively engaging, but I gradually became more and more irritated with the main character, March. For one thing, he remained the extremely naive yet proud dreamer throughout the entire book. While I initially found it charming, he failed to develop as a character and remained trapped in his role as a naive abolitionist of slavery.

I found the last few chapters particularly frustrating. March felt overly guilty about what occurred during the war. He simply seemed pitiful to me. I so desired for him to mature and become a man. I found the ending disappointing, almost as if Brooks couldn't be bothered to find a way to redeem March (though perhaps that was never her intention - it's just that I would have liked to see March's pride shattered in one way or another).

Some other reviewers have remarked on how Brooks seemingly completely missed Marmee's character, and I couldn't concur more. I found Brooks' Marmee entirely out of character as originally crafted by Alcott, and I cannot say that I liked her at all.

If you were not familiar with Alcott's "Little Women," perhaps it wouldn't matter too much and might be quite enjoyable. All in all, it was just okay for me.

It has been many years since I delved into the pages of Little Women. Just before completing this work, I visited the Wikipedia page to refresh my memory. As at least one other reviewer has astutely pointed out, the story here would have been equally, if not more, engaging had the connection not been established. A middle-aged man with a family makes the choice to fight in the US Civil War. I truly adored the premise and believed it was handled with great finesse.

Slavery, of course, is a heinous institution, even without accounting for the brutality that unfortunately occurred. Some of that brutality was beyond comprehension. I think Brooks does an excellent job of presenting us with what is likely just the tip of the iceberg in that regard. However, it is also a fact that not every slave owner was as brutally sadistic as is commonly believed, and this aspect was not shown. Additionally, not every slave owner was white, and for some reason, this never gets any attention. I only mention this because Brooks could have done so much more with her story had she chosen to explore these angles rather than restricting herself with the March of Little Women.

A passage that held significance for me, yet in the overall context of the novel, meant relatively little, is as follows. March is penning a letter home to his wife and family, detailing his experiences with the slave population, with whom he is now spending time teaching.

We are so accustomed to judging a man's mind by his level of education; yet here I have already witnessed that there are numerous other measures. Denied book-learning for so long, they have, out of necessity, cultivated diverse other skills. Their visual acuity is remarkable, and their memories are prodigious.

The letter proceeds with examples. It is the first part of that quote that still holds true today. People without a college education are often accorded less respect. It is essential to remember that life experiences vary, and just because one opts for a path other than formal education does not make that person uneducated.

Another area that I will undoubtedly contemplate for some time is that March became burdened with guilt and severely depressed because he felt he had failed to live up to all that he believed a soldier should be and do. Having read a great deal of WWI fiction and nonfiction, I have always thought that PTSD stemmed from all that a soldier witnesses and does. March has made me realize that it may also stem from what one sees and does not do. Regret can be such a torment.

I find it fascinating that, as I write this, 40% of the GR ratings are 4-stars, and the number of 3-star ratings is slightly higher than the 5-star ratings. The Pulitzer committee either had a different perspective, or perhaps this work didn't face much competition that year. Although I read it swiftly and never had a moment of hesitation, I know this isn't one of my 5-star reads. But since it has taught me something and made me think, surely it should hold a proud place among my 4-star reads, and perhaps even above the halfway mark of that group.

I have held a deep respect for Geraldine Brooks as a journalist and a writer of non-fiction for many years. Even before she ventured into writing novels, I had long intended to read her work. And this particular novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2006, seemed like a must-read.

Recently, I re-read Little Women for the first time in ages. It felt like the perfect moment to take on a book that draws inspiration from that beloved novel. Brooks mentions in the afterward that Little Women focuses on how a year at the brink of war transforms the characters of the March sisters, but what war did to their father remains unstated. March, on the other hand, tells the story of the impact of war on a man who experiences it directly.

I have two advantages when reading this book. Firstly, although I have a great fondness for Little Women, I have no specific expectations regarding Mr March's character. He is a rather shadowy figure in Alcott's novel, absent for most of it, and even when he returns from the war, the novel's focus is not on him. Secondly, I know relatively little about the American Civil War. This means I approach the narrative with no pre-conceived notions, as it is not part of my personal or national history.

While I lack detailed knowledge of the historical events Brooks refers to in the novel, I trust that she did her research thoroughly. She discloses her sources in the afterword and also discusses the liberties she took in handling some of the events. Brooks bases Mr March on Louisa May Alcott's father, Branson Alcott, which is a perfectly acceptable approach considering Alcott's extensive use of her family's circumstances in writing Little Women. So, the background as a pedlar in the south, the life in Concord, the abolitionist views and activities, the friendship with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and the veganism – all aspects of Mr March's life – are directly drawn from Branson Alcott's.

However, Brooks does not base the character of Marmee on Alcott's mother. In the afterward, Brooks writes that she first read Little Women at her mother's suggestion when she was ten. Her mother advised her to take it with a grain of salt, saying that "nobody in real life is such a goody-goody as that Marmee." So, Marmee, who is incredibly saintly in Little Women, is developed in a way that makes her very human and flawed. This might shock some readers, but I found it plausible, especially given the scene in Little Women where Marmee reveals to Jo that she has a bad temper she has to work hard to control.

There is so much to love about this book. Brooks has written a novel that vividly describes the horrors of war without being overly moralistic. She provides historical information in a natural and engaging way, without resorting to tedious dumps of facts or obvious expository moments. She creates a strong sense of time and place without overusing archaic vocabulary in the dialogue or descriptive language. Additionally, Brooks ties the novel to the events of Little Women in a seamless and unforced manner. The letters Mr March writes home to his family are particularly reminiscent of Alcott's style.

Of course, it's not a perfect novel. There are a few incidents that stretch credibility, and those more familiar with the background and events of the Civil War might find some details to quibble with. However, this novel made me think deeply and even brought me to tears. It will also, I believe, change the way I approach Little Women in the future. This is a very good thing. After my recent re-reading of Little Women, I was a bit overwhelmed by the pervasiveness of its moral lessons. Now, I will be more conscious of the context in which it was written and will think just as much about the absent Mr March as about his daughters.